Digital cameras have been popular for years, which convert subject light through a taking lens into an electrical signal using an image sensor, and produce image data from this electrical signal, and then store the image data in such a recording medium as a memory card.
Since the image sensors are getting smaller and less expensive these days, some of the digital cameras are composed of a lens unit having the image sensor in a lens barrel, and a camera body to which the lens unit is attached detachably (see, Japanese Patent Laid-open publication No. 08-172561). In this type of digital camera, the electrical signal from the lens unit is converted to the image data at the camera body, and stored in the recording medium. This configuration allows for selective use of various lens units in a single digital camera.
It is also planed, on the other front, to provide the camera body with another pair of the taking lens and the image sensor, so that photography can be carried out without the lens unit. However, with this configuration, a lens unit mount appears on the camera body when the taking lens of the camera body is used, and the overall appearance of the digital camera is therefore spoiled.